Succession
by The Genius Mage
Summary: TerraxAquaxZack, minor BBS spoilers. Whilst exploring Radiant Garden together, Aqua finds out she is far more attached than she had previously thought to a certain Olympian apprentice--but at the same time, her bond with Terra stubbornly endures. Oneshot.


_~*Succession*~_

_He had never had anything personal against the guy before…_

_~***~_

_Musical Inspiration: Succession (Crisis Core) the Birth by Sleep version, Radiant Garden and Scherzo Di Note, also the Birth by Sleep versions._

_~***~_

The threesome had finally met again.

Though Terra was still more than a _little_ miffed that Eraqus had sent Aqua to spy on him, he decided to let it slide. They had _conveniently_—a little too conveniently for his tastes—happened to have been in Radiant Garden at the same time, recuperating before heading out again.

He had made his friends no promises to stick with them, but as long as they were all here, they could do something together. For old time's sakes.

Ven was ecstatic. As far as he was concerned, the trio was back together, and that was all he cared about. Terra, however, still felt Aqua's new title hanging in the air, splitting them up just a little bit.

_Master._

Aqua was a Master now, and they were still just Keyblade Disciples. The boys could tell that she was aware of her position. She held herself just a little straighter, a little more confidently. Something about her had changed, even if only just a tiny bit. _She_ had changed.

But mostly, and even Terra couldn't deny it, she was still Aqua, his best friend along with Ventus, and he was content for her to be that way. For now.

_Xehanort called me_ Master_ Terra._

And he wrapped that lie around himself and pretended Eraqus had said it instead.

"Terra?" Ven's inquisitive voice snapped him out of his thoughtful, slightly bitter reverie.

"Huh?"

"You alright?" The blonde asked worriedly, his smile vanishing as concern etched itself across his young features. His face had hardened over his journey, but as with Aqua, he was much the same.

"Fine," he lied, feeling his heart twist and ache and perform somersaults in his chest.

Radiant Garden was gorgeous, and he wouldn't hesitant to tell anyone. The streets were clean, the inhabitants friendly, and the entire city pulsed with life. Gold and silver glinted on almost every surface as evidence of the wealth the world possessed, with its warm sunshine nicely countered by the cool breeze blowing from the famous Rising Falls, waterfalls that defied gravity and scaled towards the skies.

It was almost as wonderful as the Land of Departure, his home, along with Aqua and Ven's.

Aqua was at his side, all but prancing with happiness. Even if her professional, guarded look didn't really leave her expression, he noticed her azure eyes glowed with joy. She was still trying to apologize to him for what she was doing, and he was only just now beginning to grudgingly accept her words.

Terra had _no idea_ what they were doing currently. They were walking, simple and clean as that. Exploring, with the air constantly full of Ven's chatter as he prattled on about his adventures.

A black and silver blur suddenly burst past Terra, knocking him to the side and into a gray stone wall. The air left his lungs in a whoosh, and he struggled to straighten himself, Keyblade leaping to his hand in a flash of light. Ven was faster to recover and react, springing like a hare backwards before the same discolored streak could send him flying.

Instead of them, Aqua was the strange shape's target. She fell flat on her back, gasping in shock, arms and legs pinwheeling for a grip as she struggled to throw the rather unexpected foe off of her.

"Aqua!" cried a familiar voice, and now that the said blur was stationary, Terra and Ven both recognized the girl's assailant.

"_Zack_?" Aqua's expression was incredulous, and she finally managed to get to her feet as the black haired warrior got off of her, not embarrassed at all by his tackling hug. He helped her up instead, and Terra unconsciously scowled at how his bright blue eyes gleamed with affection for the female Keybearer.

After a moment, she smiled in response and threw her arms around him in a hug, causing Zack to grin and ruffle his dark, untamed spiky mane.

"How did you _get_ here without a Rider?!" Aqua asked disbelievingly after letting him go.

Zack didn't get to answer because Ven pounced on him like a joyous dog pile-driving his master to the floor. "Zack!"

"Ven, hey!" Grabbing the blonde in a headlock, Zack proceeded to furiously rub his knuckles against his head. The young Keyblader laughed and struggled to escape the chokehold, digging his armored heels into the stones.

Zack abruptly released him, sending Ven to the ground in a heap as he delivered a companionable punch to Terra's arm, since he knew the brown-haired warrior wouldn't appreciate nor want a hug. "Terra! How're you doing?"

Terra grimaced and rubbed the spot where he had been slugged. "Ah, you've got quite an arm."

He smiled wider in response to that, hands on his hips. He winked once. "Well, you know, takes a strong arm to hold a sword like mine."

"How did you get off of Olympus?" Aqua repeated her previous question, looking no less stunned than before.

"What, did you think I was born there?"

Ven's eyes widened. "You weren't?"

"Nah! Oh hey, Aqua, remember what I said 'fore you left?" Zack's grin acquired a slightly mischievous tint to it.

Terra's skin burned with curiosity as he gazed at the Keyblade Master. She had begun blushing, waving her hands and shaking her head, attempting to compose herself. At last she stuttered out, "Y-Yes?"

"I'm dead serious 'bout that! _Bu-u-u-t_," and here he lifted one finger to emphasize his point. "Don't worry about it!"

"Er—worry?" Ven gave Aqua a meaningful smirk. "I don't think she's _worrying_."

"Ah! Shut up, Ven!" The maiden was completely red now, her lips turned down, but Terra noticed she seemed to be fighting back a smile of her own all the same.

Zack snickered. "I'm only _thi-i-is _far away." Holding his hands a cat whisker's length apart, the fighter did what could be only described as _beaming_ at Aqua, as bright and warm as the sun's light.

Something unpleasant twisted and churned in Terra's stomach, and his scowl turned downright dangerous. Aqua's eyes were…_different_ when she looked at him, shy and nervous but _happy_. The sensation was unfamiliar and only got worse the longer the situation went on.

"What do you want?" He asked the now rather unwelcome warrior.

Raising his eyebrows at his tone, Zack gave Ven a beseeching glance. "What did I do?" His crestfallen face was almost heartbreaking.

Aqua tossed Terra something close to a glare. "Nothing at all, Zack," she soothed calmly. "I think Terra might just be having a bad day."

It was only then that the elder Keybearer realized that Zack had once again escaped how he had managed to traverse the paths between worlds. He opened his mouth to address the subject, but the warrior beat him to it.

"I've got an idea! Say, Ven, have you ever tried skateboarding?"

"Nope! Is it fun?" The blonde was all pumped up now, as if Zack's mere presence made him want to run and jump and fight a horde of Unversed at once. He was hopping from foot to foot with an excited air.

"I dunno, haven't really tried it myself."

Terra found himself saying, "I've tried it before, when I was younger. I read it in a book somewhere and made one, a long time ago."

"Cool, can you teach me?" Ven turned to Terra, spreading his arms wide in an appealing gesture.

Aqua shrugged. "I'm not really into that, you two go ahead."

Zack raised one finger, waving it in what Terra imagined was a _mocking_ gesture towards him. "Well, if Terra knows how to skateboard, even if just the basics, you've gotta show Ven!"

"Don't _you_ want to learn?" Crossing his arms, the brown-haired apprentice's mind kept trying to see where the Olympian gladiator was going with this.

"And leave Aqua out? I'll go wherever she wants to go, see a few shops; we'll be back like that!" Snapping his fingers, Zack grinned wider.

"No, that's not necessary if you don't want to," Aqua assured him.

"It's no problem!"

A growl rumbled in Terra's throat, but didn't escape past his mouth. That's _what he's planning! He wants to be alone with Aqua! _The idea, oddly enough, made him have to bite his tongue before he began giving the surprisingly clever Zack a piece of his mind.

"I can go with you," Terra offered, reluctant to leave Aqua.

She waved a hand towards Ven, whom was watching everything with a weird, blank expression all of a sudden. "Don't do that to Ven! Go ahead and teach him how to skateboard, I'll even pay the equipment."

"I heard ol' Scrooge McDuck was letting people try his boards, Ven can go on a test run for him, and even earn some munny!" Zack's eyes met Terra's, and this time the Keybearer was _sure_ that his gaze was flickering with thin shadows that only he could see.

_That clever little sneak! _

There was no way out of this situation without hurting either Aqua or Ventus, so Terra sighed and gave in. He wondered if the warrior had planned this out from the beginning, and as he fixated a special kind of glare reserved for Unversed and other untrustworthy beings on Zack, he couldn't help feeling a level of respect for the sly soldier.

After all, there was nothing malicious in Zack's stare; he was being as friendly as ever. He just had competition now, and Terra could live with that.

_Competition…for what?_ His eyes drifted to Aqua. _More like _who_._

~***~

Aqua waved goodbye to Ven and Terra for the time being, handing them some extra munny that she could spare, despite their angry objections. Unknown to Aqua, but very much known to the smirking Zack, Ven had succeeded in ducking behind her and hurriedly pressing the pouch of cash back into her traveling satchel, silently, of course.

With the Olympian protégé's arms swinging at his side, Zack trailed after Aqua, startlingly silent, as she scanned the various shops that Radiant Garden had to offer.

"Hey, know what?" Zack said unexpectedly as Aqua was flipping through a manual on Summon tokens. She had never even heard of such a thing as calling someone's soul or heart via a physical trinket, though the concept was similar to a D-Link.

"Hmm?" She hummed distractedly in response. She had almost forgotten he was there.

Rubbing his black gloved hand through his dark spikes, he flashed her a somewhat rueful grin. "I know one thing. Being a hero is really important to me, but what's important to you?"

The seriousness of his tone and question caught her off guard. She placed the book down, tapping her fingers against the cover thoughtfully. Aqua closed her eyes, searching for the answer in her heart of hearts.

"Well, there's only one thing really important to me. My friends. I'd do anything for them, no matter what the consequence to myself."

"You'd make yourself totally unhappy for your best pals?" Zack's voice was even.

"…Yes, I would. The knowledge that they're happy would be enough for me, even if I was miserable."

"That's completely selfless, Aqua. You're a hero yourself!"

In that dusty, twilit bookstore in some obscure corner of Radiant Garden—she found some of the best items were often hidden—she opened her eyes and faced Zack, finding themselves less than a foot apart. She was shocked by how quietly he could move. His breath ghosted across her skin, warm and invisible, like sunlight's specter.

Aqua's heart hammered in her chest, as if she was losing her life energy and was fleeing a dozen Unversed, with their shadowy leader right at her heels. But this feeling, at least, wasn't completely unpleasant. It was nice, even, to some degree. Zack's young face had laugh lines around the eyes and his lips seemed to be constantly upturned in a smile. But no matter how much affection—and she felt an impossible degree for this strange warrior—she felt for him, no matter how different that same affection was from her brotherly love for Ven, when she finally looked him in his eyes, she had a flash of Terra grinning softly at her, and during that flash, Zack was forgotten, even if only for a moment.

A moment was enough.

She took a step back, and something flitted through the Olympian combatant's gaze that even the experienced Aqua couldn't read. "You're a hero too, Zack." She folded one hand into a fist and kept it over her heart, listening to its frantic, slightly disappointed pulse. Her head spun with the conflicting desires she had, to stay with Zack, or return to her friends.

She knew Ven's bond was set aside from this one, strong, if not stronger, but not the same type of _feeling_.

Aqua was torn between staying with the beaming Zack or returning to the stoic presence of Terra.

"Let's go see if Ven and Terra are done," she muttered to break the silence. Turning, she walked out of the shop, ignoring the surprised look of its owner, his glasses falling down his pudgy nose. He apparently was shocked at her decision…whatever it was that she had made.

Zack was right beside her in a heartbeat, arms swinging loosely as if nothing had happened and he had not a care in the world. However, he murmured quietly to her, "Sorry if I did something wrong."

"You didn't do anything…I think it was me."

And the puzzled expression on his face was echoed by Aqua's own heart.

~***~

_**Dedicated to UnVeRsEd and Dani-Chan, 'cause I love you both!**_

_**I had a ridiculous amount of fun writing this, I might even write some more of this pairing. However, sorry in advance if Zack is horribly OOC. I've never ever played a game with him in it, but from what I've seen of him in Birth by Sleep, I really like.**_

_**Reviews are very welcome and appreciated! **_


End file.
